The present invention relates to a disposable animal washing apparatuses and, more particularly, to an animal bathing and grooming apparatus for the hygienic cleaning of animals.
The process of bathing and/or grooming an animal exposes the user and the process's surrounding areas to the following unsanitary animal bathing and/or grooming waste: fur, dead animal skin, dirty liquid runoff, germs, animal urine and feces, and the like. Therefore, the user is left with surrounding areas which must be properly washed and sanitized to return them to an orderly state of healthy cleanliness, after hygienically cleaning the animal.
Current systems used to bathe and/or groom animals, unfortunately, have many disadvantages for the animals and the bather/groomers.
A disadvantage of current systems is they do not shield the surrounding areas from such cleaning and grooming waste.
Another disadvantage of current systems is they are non-disposable and require post cleanup and sanitation effort, which adds significant amounts of time and effort to the bathing and/or grooming process.
Another disadvantage of current systems is they are bulky and/or rigid, and so when it is necessary to move the animal bathing and/or grooming location, users must contend with current solutions, which are not designed for easy portability nor space-saving storage.
Another disadvantage of a reusable animal washing device such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,064 is the need to clean the apparatus of animal hair and dirt after the animal has been bathed.
Another disadvantage of reusable animal washing devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,328 is the storage room required to store the apparatus.
Another disadvantage of using a device which encloses an animal such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,787 B2 is securing a bag around the neck of an animal creates a hazard if the animal becomes mobile and harms itself while attempting to escape from the enclosure attached to its neck.
Another disadvantage of disposable animal bathing devices which contain pretreated bathing solutions (i.e. shampoo, conditioners, medications, pest control agents, scents, etc.) such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,787 B2 is they eliminate the ability of the caregiver to select bathing solutions which address an animal's specific need.
Another disadvantage of using a device which eliminates direct access to an animal by enclosing the animal such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,787 B2 is the device eliminates the ability of the bather/groomer to use common bathing and grooming tools (i.e. brushes, de-shedders, combs, blow dryers, etc.) which provide effective grooming and bathing results.
Another disadvantage of using a device which eliminates direct access to an animal by enclosing the animal such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,787 B2 is the device adds involvedness by requiring the bather/groomer to disengage its enclosure mechanism whenever direct access to the animal is required.
Another disadvantage of using a device which completely encloses an animal such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,787 B2 is in its enclosed configuration bathers are limited by the amount of water they can use to clean an animal. Specially, if the amount of water to clean an animal is greater than the containers capacity to contain water then the bather/groomer will have to stop the bathing/grooming process and replace the disposable container with a new container.
Another disadvantage of using a device which allows cleaning runoff to come into contact with its surrounding area; such as certain configurations of U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,787 B2 which allows run-off through the bottom of the disposable bag to come into contact with the surrounding surface, is the surrounding area will require significant cleaning effort to bring the surrounding area into a state of healthy cleanliness.
As can be seen, there is a need for a disposable animal bathing and grooming apparatus for the hygienic cleaning of animals that shields the surrounding workspace and bather/groomer by way of a disposable container that facilitates the containment, filtering and funneling of animal bathing and grooming waste to an appropriate disposal location during the animal bathing and/or grooming process thereby eliminating the need for post bathing and/or grooming waste cleanup. Furthermore, the shielding apparatus needs to allow complete and direct access to the animal being bather/groomed and must be light-weight and compact for convenient portability and economical storage.